Romney campaign looking for new copywriter after string of embarrassing typos

If you’re a member of the resume-swapping social network LinkedIn, have at least two years’ “professional experience writing in marketing, advertising or journalism” and can spell the words “America,” “official” and “sneak-peek,” the Romney campaign might have an opening for you, according to BuzzFeed blogger Andrew Kaczynski. The campaign has placed an ad searching for a copywriter, which would make sense given the string of high-profile typographical errors and misspellings that have dogged the Romney 2012 machine thus far in the national race.

Last week, the Romney organization released its first smartphone app, which featured banners to lay over user-generated photos. One banner read, “A Better AMERCIA,” which earned the campaign jeers from thousands of Twitter users, who created an #Amercia hashtag, as well as comics like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Colbert even wrote a new, typo-laden version of “America the Beautiful” as a show of support.

One would think that this would result in a campaign that was studiously checking over every bit of written material it produced in order to catch typos before they went to press and potentially embarrassed the campaign. Alas, no.

Then, Monday evening, also on Romney’s Facebook page, readers could click to view a selection of “Offical” campaign gear. That mistake, first detected by San Diego developer and copy editor Kari Embree, who goes by the name @typohunter on Twitter, has since been corrected.

The Linked In posting, which has been taken down, announced, “We are looking for talented writers with proven ability to write and concept (sic) clear, concise, punchy, and effective content across web, mobile, print, and video.” If that sounds like you, polish up your resume and send it in. Just make sure and check it for typos.

About the Author

David Ferguson is an editor at Raw Story. He was previously writer and radio producer in Athens, Georgia, hosting two shows for Georgia Public Broadcasting and blogging at Firedoglake.com and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book.